The Chapel Organ
The organ also joins present to past. In 1980 a decision was made to remove the organ in order to make way for a kitchen. Since then the congregation have sung to an electronic organ. No one at the time pretended that this was an easy decision to make. Many members of the present congregation vividly remember the difficult and painful meeting at which the pros and cons were debated. In the end the vote to remove the organ represented a commitment to the vision of the new ministry of the church and all that proper kitchen facilities might mean for its mission to the community. However, the old organ was not entirely scrapped and the chapel organ was built out of its parts.
Both table and organ are reminders of the loss and the pain that inevitably accompany change. Yet they also point to the possibility of new roles and new purposes. Many people in our society have been battered and bruised by the speed of change. Unemployment, the break up of family life, the loss of the caring neighbour, anxieties about health or the future leave hardly any of us untouched. It's easy to feel as if all you have worked for has been thrown on the scrap heap. Yet God is the ~God who makes all things new'. Easter is the promise that tomorrow can be better than today. Isaiah's words still have the power to speak to us: 'The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad...'
Easter is the promise that tomorrow can be better than today.
(Please note that the Chapel Organ was completely removed in 2007)